


Make a Poem Sing

by Diana_Prallon



Series: Everybody Loves Gwaine [12]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 90's Music, 90's references, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Future Poly, M/M, Movie References, Musical References, Musicals, Polyamory, Pre-Arthur/Merlin - Freeform, Pre-Poly, Pre-Relationship, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 07:17:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12859536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diana_Prallon/pseuds/Diana_Prallon
Summary: In which Gwaine thinks he is charming (right), that the 90's are the best (also right), and that musicals are a good way to cover for spying (surprisingly right). Also, he wants to go to the moon.





	Make a Poem Sing

**Author's Note:**

> Unbetaed, unchecked, and possibly nonsense, but the image wouldn't leave me alone, so...

It really shouldn’t have surprised Merlin that Gwaine would make something so simple as waiting in the school grounds for Arthur to finish his interview into a whole thing. The two of them had walked around, watching the kids – Gwaine telling anecdotes about his time at the place, Merlin trying not to think about how many times he had already done the whole education thing and wondering why Arthur was so pigheaded and did not let them come with him. Just – the regular.

That was, until they had found the sports field. Merlin was not surprised that Gwaine was interested in it, and had resigned himself to sit in the stands and watch the girls training with the ball with half an eye while scrolling down on his mobile, trying to figure out how much information they were missing in this particular case.

He did not notice that Gwaine had left his side until it was too late.

The sound of the band training jazz near by had merged in the background noises in his mind, but he was almost sure that they did not have vocals – and the voice ringing through the air was one he would recognise anywhere, throughout the centuries.

“ _Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars,”_

Merlin sit up at once from where he had been slouching, his head moving sharply towards the sound of the music, but the voice was coming through the speakers.

“ _Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars”_

His partner was now on the top of the stands, he could see, moving towards him in dramatic fashion. Merlin rubbed his face with his hands, unsure of why he kept on being surprised by his antics.

“ _In other words, hold my hand,”_ the man sang, stretching it in his direction, though it was still too far away for him to touch. “ _In other words, baby kiss me_.”

Gwaine winked – first to Merlin, then to the crowd of girls that had stopped playing to watch the scene unfold. The wizard shook his head at the once-knight ways, he really hadn’t changed – just kept on being incorrigible.

_“Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forever more”_ He continued, coming closer. “ _You’re all I long for, all I worship_ ,” he fell to his knees and, not for the first time, Merlin wondered if he hadn’t missed his true calling in going to drama school. “ _and adore_.”

Even if he had wanted – and a tiny part of him did not want to – he wouldn’t have been able to stop Gwaine from grabbing his hand as he reached the following verses.

_“In other words, please be true_ ,” the man smiled the same smile that he had when they first met, so many lives before, filled with danger and joy. “ _In other words, I love you_.”

There was something so incredibly earnest in Gwaine’s eyes when he said it that made Merlin tense – he had often wondered… But what did it matter? They had bigger problems to deal with. When the man leaned close to try and steal a kiss, all he could do was to slap him away – not too strong, more an admonition than anything else, that Gwaine took well enough, pretending to fall backwards and turning towards the girls with a hurt puppy look.

That, it should be said, did not stop him from continuing the whole thing, with increasingly dramatic dancing, circling around Merlin as if he was the sun – but, no, _Arthur_ was the centre of their particular galaxy. There was no point in trying to stop Gwaine, so, he didn’t. He simply watched as the man completed his show and returned the stolen microphone under the applause of the teenagers.

Well, he shouldn’t expect anything different from adolescents, really.

Gwaine was grinning wildly when he returned to Merlin’s side, as a dog who has learnt a new trick and waits for a pat of approval when, in fact, it had done something disastrous.

"I know you think you're being charming and romantic, Gwaine, but you're not Heath Ledger – and this is not the 90's,” Merlin pointed out, but he _was_ smiling.

 "What's wrong with the 90's? I liked the 90's. Also, I _am_ charming."

“I have _no clue_ where you got that idea,” Merlin replied, looking away for effect. It would be hard to keep a straight face if staring at Gwaine’s infectious smile.

Merlin sat back down, picking up his mobile again now that his partner was safely next to him. He sent Arthur a message, asking how long he thought it would still take – though probably he wouldn’t answer, when fishing for information, it was hard to rush. Besides, for all that it was outrageous, Gwaine’s little performance would be the talk of the day; he had noticed some of the kids filming it all, and it was a matter of minutes before it was on Social Media. It had been a nice little piece of misdirection, making everyone think that it was _them_ that they should be paying attention to.

“Come to think of it,” Gwaine sat down next to him, his tone excited in a way that didn’t normally mean good news for anyone but tavern owners. “You probably _could_ fly us to the Moon, couldn’t you?”

"I'm _not_ flying you into the moon. You do not need any more reason to have your feet in the air,” answered the wizard, not willing to bother with absurd comments.

"I'm sure I can think of at least 3 good reasons for you to get my feet in the air," Gwaine replied with a leer that Merlin knew so well, and, sometimes, made his heart jump a bit.

"I'd be surprised if you _could_ think about anything else."

He knew Gwaine all too well to believe his wild, random bouts of flirting. He would do the same with anyone, he just had that way of looking at you as if you were the centre of the Universe, unique and completely irresistible. Nevertheless, Merlin could remember each one of his lives through the last one thousand years, and there had not been one in which Gwaine hadn’t been a heartbreaker. Besides… And even if there was nothing, he wouldn’t put himself and his heart in danger needlessly.

“You wound me,” he didn’t, however, sound hurt at all, but amused. “I’m a man of many talents besides innuendo.”

“Oh, yes,” Merlin agreed heartily. “You’re a full-on womanizer.”

Gwaine’s eyebrows shot up, and he put his hand on his chest, in an affected gesture of offense.

“I’m not sure what is worse – that you’re saying I’m nothing but a pretty face or that you’re comparing me to a Britney Spears song.”

“Really? Britney Spears? Why do you think I…” Gwaine did not let him finish.

“As I said, I liked the 90’s _and_ they’re back. Also, I can do a lot of things well that are _not_ sex related.”

“I know you can,” the wizard agreed lightly. “Asking absurd questionings, for one.”

“Oh, but, come _on_. Just think about it. Couldn’t you – I don’t know – move us to the Moon somehow?”

The thing about the word magic, of course, was that it was misleading. Magic did not work without direction and knowledge, it wasn’t simply a matter of will – though will _was_ important – and training. Knowing the theory always helped; as the sciences progressed Merlin found that learning it made his magic more efficient, even if the raw power at his disposal kept on waning. Which, of course, was the very reason why they were gathering all that information.

“ _If_ I had a rocket, and the proper calculations, and fuel – _maybe_ I could jumpstart it. _Maybe_.”

Gwaine knew him too well to believe his humble words.

“So, what you’re saying, is that you could do it any day.”

“Stop,” the wizard warned. “You know, _that_ is why I never told you _before_. You’re crap at secrecy.”

“Don’t try and justify it,” the man said, not without heat. “I can keep my mouth shut.”

Merlin just scoffed at it.

“Magic’s supposed to be a secret and you’re quizzing me about it in a very public space.”

“There’s little more private than a good public space. The buzz makes everything harder to grasp.”

There was no reason for them to pursue that argument, so Merlin just let it go. His thumb went through the screen, rolling down.

“If you don’t want to talk about flying us to the moon, you could enlighten me on why I keep getting turned down. I mean, this was a whole new level – I _serenaded_ you, making references to my childhood’s favourite movie, and _still_ you won’t kiss me.”

That made the other man laugh.

“Oh, you’re not young enough to have been a child when this movie came out.”

“Are you saying I’m old?” The other man teased, in a perfect impersonation of Arthur complaining about his weight, making the wizard laugh even more. “I’m in my prime.”

“You really are,” Merlin agreed, his eyes going soft.

“Is this a yes to kissing?” Gwaine asked, leaning closer, and Merlin turned just enough for the kiss touch his cheek instead of lips. “Now, that’s just being a tease.”

“I’m a tease?” Merlin asked, a bit breathless.

“You’ve always been a tease,” Gwaine answered, his voice heavy so near Merlin’s ear, his breath touching Merlin’s body and making him shiver. “You’d look from under your long eyelashes, but once the Princess came around…”

That gave Gwaine a stop, and he sit up straight.

“That’s it, isn’t it? You won’t kiss me because of the Princess.”

Merlin tried to laugh, to shake his head, to deny it all, but finally Gwaine had caught up with everything. He could see how every single moment they had shared, in whatever life, was revisited and spun around in the light of this new knowledge.

“All this time – I can’t believe how blind…” He sighed, shaking his head. “No, I think, deep down, I always knew – we all did. There was nothing for you but Arthur. There could never be, there will never be. And if he treats you – if he leaves you – betrays you – hurts you, you’ll only _let him_ because you can’t deny him anything, can you?”

“Gwaine…” Merlin tried, though he didn’t know what to say.

“You know, Merlin,” Gwaine stood up, cleaning his hands in his pants. “I get it. You love him. And he is – he’s something, alright. Not your regular type of man, no. He can command armies and he can command hearts, and he’s honourable and tries to be good. He’s more a legend than a man, and you love both. I can believe it – I can even accept it, but Merlin?” He looked down, and he seemed to feel _sorry_ for the wizard, which was just another layer of pain. “He’s not the only one, though. We _all_ are legends, for better or worse. And you – you’re every bit the man he is and more. You act as if he’s the sun, but he’s just the moon – he shines _because_ you light him up.”

Merlin’s throat was absolutely constricted. It was a very nice speech, and he had never doubted Gwaine’s loyalty. He wished he could repay it in kind, reward it as he should, as he _wanted_ to, but if it became a choice… He would rather never have given Gwaine reason to hurt.

“He needs you, even if he can’t admit it,” the man continued, his face grim. “He loves you just as much, even if he doesn’t see it. He’ll never give you up, but Merlin…” his expression softened, honest and raw and so incredibly alluring. “I would _never_ hold you back, or think less of you for it. You’re two sides of the same coin, we all know it. There’s no standing between you, nothing can compete or compare. I would never presume to. I just wanted to be allowed to _love_ you, even if it isn’t the stuff of songs.”

As he turned around, ready to leave Merlin alone, it was the wizard’s turn to move. He grasped Gwaine’s hand, making him stop, and his face was inquisitive when he looked at Merlin. It had been instinct and a long-denied love (as were all his loves) that had made him move, and while his brain searched for something to say, memories flooded his head, from so long ago.

“Don’t leave,” he pleaded, his eyes open wide. “There’s no point in Courage and Magic without Strength to make things true.”

The glint in Gwaine’s eye showed that he knew what Merlin was talking about, so long ago, in a place that had long disappeared, so much time and space that not even the dust was the same. As they held each other’s gaze, much more was said without a single word, the knowledge of many stories together and apart, and the man came closer again, cradling Merlin’s face with his hand.

“I _did_ learn how to share.”

“Good,” Merlin muttered, their lips so close that speaking made them touch. “We all will need to.”

One would have expected a kiss from Gwaine to be hot, wild, passionate – but it was none of those things. It was fierce, demanding, enticing but it also was warm, knowing and calm. For all the urge that preceded it, there was no rush, just the certainty of what led them there and the sights of what was to come.  Merlin felt his bones melting, his soul opening, his magic singing as he stepped in the circle of Gwaine’s arms, allowing himself to love and be loved for the first time in countless centuries.

It would have been sweet, it would have been romantic, it would have been the stuff of films, if Gwaine hadn’t stepped back once the kiss was over with words already bubbling from his lips.

“But, be honest now, did you or did you not pester Christina Perri to write that song? And, will you _ever_ forgive her for putting it into Breaking Dawn?”

The echo of the answering slap could be heard through the field, but it didn’t matter. Nothing did when their laughter rose and mingled through the air, filling the day with its own magic.

This time, they would be just fine.

(“Of course we will, _Mer_ lin,” Arthur would scoff once he finally figured it all out. “We have never failed when we were together”

And Merlin had _no plans_ of ever leaving either of them behind).


End file.
